This article focuses on the structure of the Crystal Palace and the process that its key engineers underwent to construct it and then relocate it. It looks in particular at the role of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Includes diagrams, photographs, and other illustrations.

Transformation of the Coalbrookdale Company from a mass producer of iron to a supplier of decorative art objects illustrates how Britain's Great Exhibition of 1851 influenced the union of art and industry.

Mainardi, Patricia. "The Unbuilt Picture Gallery at the 1851 Great Exhibition." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 45: 3 (1986): 294-99.

Presents documents related to a plan to build a specially designed gallery for the exhibition of paintings. Adds new dimensions to traditional history which states that the French were the first to exhibit fine arts as part of the 1855 Universal Exposition. The intended design of the gallery suggests that the fine arts were considered a part of tradition and not something to be featured in the Crystal Palace alongside other forms of modern industry.

Describes the chemical, raw materials and pharmaceutical exhibits at the Fair, both British and foreign, the prizes won, and their importance in later years.

Oliver, Richard. "The Ordnance Survey and the Great Exhibition of 1851." Map Collector 50 (1990): 24-28.

Only certain sections of the Ordnance Survey map were completed by the time they were to be exhibited at the world's fair. The maps that were initially displayed did not include Scotland. Discussion of survey styles and the subsequent incorrect mapping of Scotland are included.

Manufacturing centers throughout England and the world saw the 1851 Exhibit as an opportunity to show their achievements to the world and included several pioneers in manufacturing techniques.

The Society's History Study Group. "Symposium on 'Exhibition and Celebration': the RSA and the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain of 1951 and plans for the Millennium." RSA Journal 143 (May 1995): 43-59.

See specifically the first three speeches:
Allan, D.G.C. "The Society of Arts and the National Repository"
Bonython, Elizabeth. "The Planning of the Great Exhibition of 1851"
Hobhouse, Hermione. "The Legacy of the Great Exhibition"
Allan's speech sheds light on the connection between the Great Exhibition and the Society. Bonython introduces the key individuals who took part in organizing the Great Exhibition and the process that they went through. Hobhouse delves into the lasting impact of that first world exposition: tourism, successor exhibitions, and the South Kensington estate of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Dissertations

Auerbach, Jeffrey A. "Exhibiting the Nation: British National Identity and the Great Exhibition of 1851." Ph. D. Dissertation: Yale, 1995.

Monographs

Auerbach, Jeffrey. The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

Held in London's Crystal Palace, "was the world's first industrial exposition," and for Britons became a defining event of the mid-19th century. Reveals how the event was conceived, planned, and why it was such a success.

Birbineau, Lorenza Stevens and Karen Kilcup, ed. From Beacon Hill to the Crystal Palace: the 1851 Travel Diary of a Working Class Woman. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2002.

Documents the six month European Grand Tour of a domestic servant who traveled with a well known and wealthy family of Boston's Beacon Hill.